Australian Energy Market Operator

AEMO operates Australia's National Electricity Market (NEM), the interconnected power system in Australia’s eastern and south-eastern seaboard, and the Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) and power system in Western Australia.

AEMO operates gas retail markets in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, and Western Australia. AEMO also operates wholesale gas markets in south-eastern Australia, those being the Declared Wholesale Gas Market in Victoria (DWGM), the Short Term Trading Market in Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney (STTM), and the Gas Supply Hub (GSH), whose trading locations are based at Wallumbilla in Queensland, and Moomba in South Australia. AEMO also operates the Natural Gas Services Bulletin Board (GBB), and is system operator of the Victorian Gas Declared Transmission System. AEMO is also responsible for Gas Services Information functions in Western Australia.

Optional firm access final report

AEMO was asked by the Standing Council on Energy and Resources (SCER – renamed the COAG Energy Council in late 2013) to investigate and make recommendations on the Optional Firm Access (OFA) package proposed by the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) in their Transmission Frameworks Review in April 2013.

With recent inefficient dispatch episodes dominated by issues beyond the scope of access settlement, AEMO chose not to promote stage one, and to bring its formal work to a close with this March 2015 report. The AEMC will continue to work on the full OFA proposal, with AEMO providing a technical support role.